International consultation on incontinence questionnaire short form: comparison of physician versus patient completion and immediate and delayed self-administration.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the results of International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-SF) with physician completion versus patient self-administration. The ICIQ-SF is a new self-administered questionnaire that qualifies the symptoms and quality of life in both male and female adult patients with symptoms of urine loss.
METHODS: Sixty-four women consulting for urinary incontinence completed the ICIQ-SF three times: twice during the same visit, by self-administration and physician interview, and once at home, approximately 1 week later.
RESULTS: All 64 patients completed the questionnaire the first two times, but only 59 of them sent back the questionnaire after 1 week. The mean patient age was 59 +/- 3.8 years. The distribution of the differences was similar among the three kinds of administration. The mean total symptom score for the self-administered, physician completed, and self-administered 1 week later ICIQ-SF was 11.31 +/- 4.6, 11.98 +/- 4.4, and 11.4 +/- 4.7, respectively. The corresponding quality-of-life assessments were 5.2 +/- 2.9, 5.5 +/- 3, and 5.18 +/- 2.9. No statistically significant differences were observed.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrated that the information obtained by self-administration of the ICIQ-SF at the office or at home or when completed by the physician during an interview is not different. These findings, showing the intraobserver and interobserver reliability of this new questionnaire, are extremely important for clinical use and research.